Toyota has long been one of the most reticent large automakers when it comes to producing all-electric vehicles. It had no problems with hybrids, e.g. the Prius, but the Japanese automaker would only produce the bare minimum when it came to zero-emission mandates, e.g. the Rav4 EV in California, and they quickly lobbied to change those mandates.

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Now Japan’s Nikkei is out with a new report stating that Toyota is indeed considering the mass production of EVs to comply to China’s mandate and that they are again focusing on SUVs.

A third generation Rav4 EV anyone?

Toyota’s most important moves into all-electric vehicles were the first generation Rav4 EV in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but it was scrapped after California relaxed its ZEV mandates, and another was its small investment in Tesla and their collaboration on the second generation Rav4 EV to comply with California’s new ZEV mandate.

As it is the case with a few other automakers, like GM, Daimler and VW, it looks like China could be the first market to see the results of this new electric vehicle effort thanks to its aggressive ZEV mandate.